When We Were Young
by EmergentWriter
Summary: Little drablets on those things you wondered about, but Veronica Roth never gave the answers to. I HAVE THOSE ANSWERS! Unrelated, contains Trobias and good old brotherly/sisterly love, but remain Tris-centric. Will be updated sporadically.
1. Chapter 1

**Got bored before Insurgent came out. Wrote a little drabble-y thing. Doesn't matter whether you review or not, I just had to get this out of my head. There may or may not be more to follow, I guess it depends on if anyone likes it. **

**Disclaimer; Do I look like Veronica Roth to you? NOPE. NOT A CHANCE.**

**Quote from the book; "My earliest memory pf him is from when we were four years old. He scolded me for not giving my jump rope to a little girl on the playground who didn't have anything to play with. Caleb doesn't lecture me often anymore, but I have his look of disapproval memorized."**

**Tris POV, four years old**

I'm jumping rope outside at school. Jump, swish, thwack. Jump, swish, thwack. I don't know why my faction, Abnegation, thinks it's hard. It's easy. I guess they just don't really like sports. Not like those Dentless or whatever they're called. The brave ones.

Jump, swish, thwack. I see a girl, about my age, sitting all by herself. She's new, I think. She transferred from Candor when her parents died in a train accident. That's sad. I would never want that to happen. Not even Caleb.

She looks up at me with big green eyes. I look away quickly. I don't want to draw attention to myself. Mother and Father said that I must never do that. It would be selfish.

That girl looks really lonely, though.

I should go over and ask her to play. That would be the nice thing to do. But I don't want to share, even though I know that makes me greedy. Why should I have to? The jump rope is mine. I found it, tossed at the edge of the train tracks where I'm not supposed to go. So I keep jumping. Jump, swish, thwack.

Out of the corner of my eye I see my big brother Caleb talking to the new girl. She says something to him. He frowns. Then he starts walking over to me. Uh oh. "Beatrice Prior!" Double uh oh.

"Bee, what are you doing?" "Jumping rope," I say sweetly. Usually Caleb goes away if I talk nicely. Not this time. Caleb's eyebrows go together. They look like caterpillars, but I don't say so. I think I'm already in trouble.

"You should give Violet your skipping rope," he says. I'm not skipping, I'm jumping! Pretty girls with the name Violet skip. I jump. "No!" Caleb is five, but he's only a few months older than I am. He thinks he knows everything. He's too smart. "Bee," he says. He sounds kind of mad now.

"What?" I say. I want to tell Caleb to go away, and that he's bugging me, but I never would. Rudeness is not allowed.

"We are Abnegation," he says, sounding very important. Like Father at a meeting. "We share and give our things to others." Oh. He wants me to give my rope to that girl, Violet. Well then.

"Why?" I say. "Because we are trying to forget ourselves," he sighs. "I told you this million times!" Actually, it was probably a trillion, but ok. "Why?" "Because I said so!" His eyebrows are one big caterpillar now.

I won't give her my rope. I won't, I won't! "NO!" I run off onto the field, and start skipping again. Jump, swish, thwack. I should feel bad, but I don't. I feel angry.

Caleb's angry look is still in my head. His eyes are dark, like a shadow ate them, and his eyebrows are together. His lips are down in a frown, but he also looks kind of sad. Mother said something like that once. What was it? Disappointed!

Caleb is disappointed in me. Oh. My skipping stops and I drop my bright rope to the gravel. Suddenly, I don't mind whether the girl has it or not. There are more important things that self-comfort. Because I am Abnegation.

_Though maybe, _a sneaky thought crosses my mind, _maybe someday I won't be._

**I'm sorry the writing may have seemed inferior, but remember I am writing from the perspective of a four-year-old child.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yeah. I'm just kind of uploading everything. I can't find the inspirational line for this drabble, but it's the part where Tris is watching the trains and Dauntless back in Abnegation, near the beginning of the book. I kind of broke my Kobo, so I can't read Divergent unless I get it from the library :'(**

**Disclaimer; Do we need to go over this again?**

* * *

This has become somewhat of a ritual for me for as long as I can remember. My day has fallen into a steadying, comforting pattern, a unity that only Abnegation can provide. The organized rhythm helps me trudge through the day, keeps me going and fuels me.

Wake up to the buzzing of the simple metal alarm clock. Slap it off again and get up immediately, so as not to inconvenience the others by making them late.

Get dressed in my loose grey uniform, and tie my blond hair into a messy bun. Not as neat as Mother would have done, but it will have to do. Brush my teeth in the plain bathroom with no mirror, because mirrors are a sign of vanity, and vanity is a sin.

Make breakfast for my family; Mother, Father, Caleb, and myself. Eat breakfast quickly, but not too quickly, so as not to appear greedy. Clear and wash the dishes with Caleb. Pack my lunch. Walk to school.

And when I get to school, Caleb and I go our separate ways, he to the boys' classes, and I to the girls'. Except for the fact that I never go straight to class like I'm supposed to. Ever.

I slip away to look out at the train tracks that trail away into the distance to who knows where. They lead past even the Erudite compound, which is currently silhouetted black against the rising sun.

Depending on the weather, the distant mountains far away on the horizon can look anywhere from purple to pink to blue to brown. Today, they are painted vibrant gold, an echo of the beams streaking the ground.

The train comes roaring down the tracks, and I watch as it zooms by at full speed, jostling the Dauntless onboard. They are all our age, of course, fourteen, going to this school.

As the train rounds the bend by the school, it slows slightly. I have this down to a science. At the most rounded curve of the track, where the train slows, the Dauntless jump, as one. From the moving train. Onto the slippery grey gravel.

I watch as their strong leg muscles bunch and tense, and then spring open again at exactly the right moment to jump. Their graceful bodies soar through the air, weightless, and then fall back down to earth, the balls of their feet touching down as lightly and gently as a feather.

I wish I could do that. But showing off by jumping off of a train is not allowed in Abnegation, as it would be calling attention to ourselves. So I stare out the window instead, drinking in the sight of such organized chaos.

I have done this ever day, as long as I can remember. It gives me a taste of the outside world, something outside of our neat little compound with its linear grey houses and uniform steel mailboxes.

It gives me the chance to do as I please for once, albeit through someone else. So I watch and wait, wishing I was brave enough to break the rules and join them.

Someday, I will be Dauntless.

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**Short and sweet, guys. No ship 'cuz I didn't really want to write one today XD Review, s'il vous plait?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi, everyone! This is me allowing my brain to leak out of my ears because I've had a really long day! And everyone's mad at me! YAY! So imma just upload a whole bunch of stuff because I can :) For youuuuu :)**

**This is written in the point of view of a five-year-old Tris, and she does mention that her mother's arm was broken somewhere in the book but, as I said, my kobo is broken and I can't read Divergent :'( Tragedy.**

**Disclaimer; If I can't even read it, how can I own it?**

* * *

Today started like every day did. Caleb and I would go to school together, and then we would go to our classes. Caleb would go to the boys' class, and I would go to the girls'.

We're both in Kindergarten, even though Caleb is older than me. It was something about how he was only a few months older than me or something. I guess it wasn't important, because I forgot.

I did my maths that the teacher gave me, and I only got stuck on one of the minus questions. Then I got to go outside, so I ran on the field, even though I'm not supposed to.

I only ran on the field once before, with a boy. I can't remember his name, only that he had blue eyes and was faster than me, because he beat me at a race. I NEVER lose at races.

Then the bell rang, and we went back inside to do some sketches on the computer, and mine was supposed to be a boat I saw in the textbook. It looked like a squashed pea, only brown. I deleted it.

I would have thrown it away if it was paper, but there is no paper left. The Amity woman that came in last week told us how paper was made from trees, and if we used too many trees, the factions would die. So no paper.

After that I ate my lunch. A sandwich, an apple, a cookie, and a milk carton. Like every day. Always the same. I get bored of it sometimes, but then I get hungry. And the hungry beats the bored, so I eat the sandwich.

Then we go out to play, and I see my friend Susan, who lives down the street from us. She's nice, but I think she likes Caleb better than me. Once she told me she was going to marry him, but I don't believe her.

I don't want to play with Susan. She never tries any of the games I make up. She says yelling and running is not proper, and we should act like Abnegation. Whatever.

So I play tag with myself, until the teacher comes over and says, "Beatrice, what are you doing?" I blink up at her. She's too dark against the sun. I can't see her properly.

"Playing tag," I say, looking at my feet. I'm not supposed to play tag. I'm not really supposed to do anything, but I do it anyways. It's more fun when you're not allowed.

I got in a little bit of trouble, but not that much, so I didn't get detention. Caleb and I walk home together again. I would run down the street, but then I remember the teacher, and I only walk.

I think I should have run. We get to our boxy grey house just in time to see Mother trip down the stairs, and fly into the air like a bird. Except for birds don't come down again that fast. And birds don't go "crunch" when they land.

Mother screams, and it's the first time I've ever heard her raise her voice. She never yells, not even when she's mad. It's scary that she screams.

I see a pool of red underneath her, and I think that maybe she was carrying paint, or tomato juice. Then I realize it's blood. Mother's blood. I feel like a statue that's able to see everything, but they can't move because they're made of stone.

Mother's arm is twisted funny. And it has something white poking out of it. I realize that's the bone.  
Caleb isn't a statue. He yells, which is something we're never supposed to do, because it draws attention to ourselves, but he's yelling for help, so I suppose it's okay.

He yells over and over again, until one of our neighbors comes to see what's wrong. I can tell she's from Abnegation because of her grey robes. "Oh my," she says, and she pulls out an emergency communicator.

Sure enough, about five minutes after the call, a big red and yellow ambulance pulls up. Its sirens sound like someone crying, "Help me, help me." I don't like it.

I am still a statue, and Mother is lying on the grey sidewalk bleeding. Caleb tugs my arm, and pulls me into the ambulance. I guess we're going to the hospital. Hospitals scare me. They smell funny, and the sick people in there are strange.

Once, one of the sick people started talking to me and called me Jenny, and I tried to tell him I wasn't Jenny, I was Beatrice. He didn't listen to me and said, "Jenny, make my tea, there's a good girl." I left after that.

An Amity woman in yellow comes up to me and hands me a red hanky. "To wipe your tears with," she says. "I don't need it," I say. I don't care if I'm rude. My Mother is hurt!

The Amity woman nods, and leaves to the front of the ambulance. Caleb takes the hanky and wipes my face. I unfreeze and hit his hand away, and then I realize I'm crying.

I wipe the tears away with my hand. I hate crying. It calls attention to myself, is useless, and makes me look weak. I don't want to be weak. I want to be strong, like the Dauntless that jump off trains.

We ride in silence. It's too quiet in here. "Hello," I say to the Amity woman. Caleb shushes me. I'm not supposed to start talking to someone, they have to start talking to me.

"Hello," says the woman back. She looks surprised. "What's your name?" "I'm Beatrice," I say. "Who are you?" Caleb waves his hands at me to be quiet. "Emily," she says. "It's nice to meet you."

She holds out a hand, and I remember what that boy told me, on the field. You shake it. So I shake her hand. We don't usually shake hands in Abnegation, but other factions do.

It goes quiet again until we arrive at the hospital, where some other Amity people carry my mother into the hospital on a board. A stretcher, I hear someone call it. They're going to stretch her? Why?

I'm about to ask, but Caleb pulls me after the doctors into a room. My mother is awake now, I think she passed out for a little. I sit in a chair, and the stupid tears come again.

"It's ok, Beatrice," says my mother calmly. How can she be calm when I see the bone coming out of her arm? "Your mother will be fine," says an Amity nurse in red. "It's just a break."

Just a break!?

The doctors make everyone leave while they put Mother's arm back in the right place. I don't really want to look, anyways. When we go back in, Mother is smiling, but very, very pale.

She has a cast on her arm, and the doctors are putting some machine on her. "Don't be alarmed, Beatrice," one of them says. "We're just checking her blood pressure." They take the test, and I guess everything is normal, because they say she's "good to go."

When we ride home, I realize something. I don't care if hospitals are selfless places that help people. I never want to go back there again.

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**I hate hospitals. Just sayin'.**


	4. Important notice

**Guys, this is really important.** And I'm actually dead serious. This isn't like, "Oh my Amity. I lost my book!" serious. This is why I haven't been posting lately.

Remember my camp that I go to every summer? The one that makes me really happy and then I come back all excited and motivated to write and cheerful?

It's shutting down.

Yeah.

Please, everyone, whether you're new to my stories and work, or whether you're a dedicated follower or favouritee, I'm asking for your help now. Well, no. Scratch that, I'm _begging_ for your help. This camp means a lot to me, and to a lot of other people that I know. I can't imagine my world without it, so I'll make this really simple.

We have a Facebook page. _**Save Camp Artaban. **_If you guys could go on Facebook, search us up, and click _like, _that would be more than I could ask for. If we can garner support, maybe it will show the people who cut our funding that this isn't just a summer camp, it's a second home. If you guys, any of you, want to find out more, follow our Facebook updates or even message me. I'd be more than happy to fill you in.

And if anyone out there has any money to spare, that would be the best thing ever to happen to me.

This is EmergentWriter, signing off. I don't know when I'll be on next, but thank you all for sticking with me

And diehard followers? I keep my word. I don't abandon stories. I just won't be on very often, if at all, until this is resolved.

Please, guys. And girls. And anyone else out there. _**Help.**_


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